


Jokes Of fate

by imaginary_shadow



Category: Twilight (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Character Death, Emotional Hurt, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friendship, Heartbreak, Hurt/Comfort, Imprinting, Older Woman/Younger Man, Original Character(s), Romance, Secret Relationship, Self-Hatred, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-28 09:04:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17784509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_shadow/pseuds/imaginary_shadow
Summary: It is true what they say about imprinting. That you can't control imprinting on someone no matter how strong of a wolf you are. It's not assured that every imprinting will bring happiness in lives. This time one imprinting will destroy three lives at once. A girl fell in love with Seth Clearwater but fate played a cruel joke on her because Seth imprinted on her own mother.





	1. A Beautiful Life

 

 

**Chapter 1: A Beautiful Life**

 

"LAILA, WAKE UP. DON'T MAKE ME COME UPSTAIRS!"

That's my loving and a bit annoying mother. Well only sometimes. She has been yelling at me to wake up for past half an hour. But I aren't such a morning person on the weekends. Can you really blame me for that? I half open my eyes lazily and look at the clock hanging on the wall. I groan out loudly as I see the time.

"It's only nine." I mutter lowly to myself. No way in hell or heaven I am getting up a second before ten. I cover my ears with my pillows and peacefully go back to sleep. But unfortunately, I forgot who I was dealing with. After waiting for another ten minutes more, my super energetic mom comes into my room and pours a bucket full of cold water on me. I jump up with a startled scream. Too startled to think straight about anything. It takes me some time to process in my brain just what has actually happened. I'm completely soaked from head to toe in cold water and my bed is all wet too. As I squeeze a pillow; water pours out of it.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I yell with an angry glare at my mother. I don't hesitate for a second to express my annoyance, not to mention as clearly as possible. My mom however, despite my glaring at her, has a triumphed look plastered on her face. God, she's more immature than I am. Completely childish.

"This is not funny." I snap at her, looking dead serious but mom starts laughing at the look on my face.

"Of course it is. You're looking like a wet cat. A cute wet cat I must add." She says affectionately. I roll my eyes at her childishness and finally (having no other choice) get out of the bed. Needless to mention, muttering some wrong words under my breath.

"Breakfast is ready." Mom informs me with a cheery voice to raise my temper more. She goes downstairs and I get into the bathroom to freshen up and start the bright and sunny day.

Even though I'm majorly pissed off, however once inside the bathroom I couldn't help but smile to myself at the incident that just took place. Something like this happens every weekend. My mom always wakes up very early in the morning which is obviously very convenient for working days. Mornings on work days pass by very fast. There's never any time to waste. Unfortunately on weekends, even though there is no rush, mom would still wake up early in the morning like everyday. This habit of hers leaves her feeling lonely since I'd be sleeping in till late in the morning. Mom doesn't like loneliness therefore tries to wake me up applying various tactics, childish tactics I must clarify. So that she can properly spend her limited free time with me. Needless to say, I love my mom very much. She's the world's best and coolest mom ever. We live so happily together that no one can guess just by looking at us that we actually have a rather painful past plaguing our lives.

'My mom's name is Tania.'

Mom's an orphan who never knew her parents. She spent sixteen years of her life at an orphanage in India. When her stay there came to an end, she came to USA along with a couple of orphanage sisters. Here she met my dad, Chris Castle. My dad was eighteen at that time they met. He was a senior at Chicago public high school where mom had started her schooling as well. They became best friends soon and gradually fell in love. When mom turned eighteen they got married. My dad's family accepted mom happily. They treated her like their own daughter. Mom was very happy to finally have a family of her own.

My dad had two more siblings. One older sister named Carly and one younger brother named Frank. My dad's grandfather also lived with them. Therefore it was a perfect definition of a big happy family. I was born right after their first marriage anniversary. My mom was a fan of Indian love stories, and so she named me after a girl of a famous romantic couple in an Indian love story. The love story of 'Laila & Majnu' is still very famous in India even in present days. Or so I was told. Personally I didn't like my name all that much but there was nothing I could do about it when I was given the name; obviously. And now, it just grew on me.

Back to my mom and dad, both of my parents had completed their education on time. Mom became a surgeon and dad joined the CIA. It was his dream job. Mom and dad were totally opposite of each other and the phrase 'opposite attracts' applied to them perfectly. While my mom was soft, caring, loving, and shy. She loved listening to soft music and loved to play violin. My dad on the other hand was the perfect action hero. But despite all the differences between them, they were perfect for each other and completely in love. Even their small arguments seemed like they were expressing their love for each other. After I was born; mom and dad got our own place to stay but the apartment was near by the house where the rest of the family lived. So we got to meet each other on a regular basis. Me, mom and dad, our lives were full of happiness and too perfect. Maybe that's why it didn't last long and, soon enough it completely shattered to pieces.

It was a horrible day for us. Unfortunately for me, I still remembered the day vividly. My dad was chasing after a dangerous underworld criminal like usual. However, this time something went terribly wrong. Dad was killed by the underworld gang to which that pursued individual criminal belonged to. Dad did manage to save seven people in that mission but couldn't save himself. We were having lunch together in grandpa's house when we received the news about dad. I was only eight back then but I understood the loss and the pain very clearly. I am really proud of my dad and always will be. But the death of my dad broke my mom completely. She didn't want to exist anymore. Her own life became a burden on her. My grandpa and grandma helped us a lot during that time. They took care of mom. My aunt Carly and Uncle Frank took care of me for months while mom lived like a zombie. The only thing that gave mom any reason to live for- was me. I was the one and only reason she forced herself to forget the pain of losing her love and started living her life again.

As expected, I became her whole world. And since then it was just me and mom. All the way together. Eventually, mom decided to move away from Chicago and live somewhere else where the memories of my dad wouldn't haunt her every minute of every day. She wanted the city to stop reminding her that she has lost him forever. The mere realization of it was what tortured mom the most. Everyone understood it, including me. Therefore, there was no protest about mom leaving the place. Shortly after all arrangements were done, we moved to California State and started a new life here. Eventually it turned out to be a very good thing for both mom and I. We were ready to move on from the past. Not that it was easy but we tried our best. Both of us. Eventually things got better. We kept in touch with the others. Grandpa and Grandma would come to visit us whenever they could. They still do actually.

There was a time though, when I thought that mom would remarry someone once things are settled and somewhat normal again. I didn't expect her to choose to be a widow for the rest of her life. She is still very young after all. I even asked her once about it but she clearly stated that dad was not only her husband but her first and only love of her life. She could never get over him and didn't even want to try it. Mom believes that they would meet again in afterlife. My mother is a very religious and spiritual person. Therefore, she believes in everything like afterlife and the end of the world etc. etc. She even goes to church whenever she can, though not regularly. Being a surgeon at the city hospital, mom could hardly get any time to spend in leisure. I won't lie. A part of me was very grateful to mom that she didn't make some guy my father; because- let's face it, no one can take my dad's place in my heart. But I also made a promise to myself that if mom ever decides to get married again, I will fully support her. She deserves all the happiness in the world.

At present times, our lives are going on very good. I turned sixteen just one week ago. It sometimes surprises me really; how time can fly away so fast. Though we both are getting older but we've kept our immature behaviors because that allow us to laugh sometimes; and have a happy moment. In the beginning of our new lives, we hardly had any reason to even smile, especially mom. Anyway, speaking of some happy moments, my sixteenth birthday was the second best birthday of my life. The first best one was the last birthday I had with my dad. This time my mom gave me a car as my birthday present. It's a red colored corvette. I just love it. It's my best birthday present ever. Mom and I decided to name it 'Blush' because she seems to be blushing red all the time. I already got my driving license so, on the day of my birthday I drove the car around for three hours straight with mom sitting right beside me. For any other teenager girl or boy, it might have been an embarrassing thing to do but it wasn't for me. We had a lot of fun that day. So who the hell cared about what my friends would think of me driving my mother around and have fun doing it. I certainly didn't care at all.

Back to the current situation- finally after getting ready for the day; I go downstairs to find my mom waiting at the breakfast table for me. I knew she hasn't eaten anything yet even though she must be very hungry already. I sigh to myself and shake my head in hopelessness. What would happen to my crazy mom without me? Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the deep bond between us but truth to be told; sometimes I don't like the fact that she cares for me so much. That she's so depended on me. Due to that, I just know that she won't survive if anything ever happens to me. Thus, for the sake of her life, I always refrain myself from doing anything stupid or reckless. Things that kids my age love to do just for the sake of being a teenager. For example, drinking, smoking, sneaking out of the house to go to a late night party etc etc. And of course I've forbidden myself to go anywhere near any kind of addictive drugs. I've never even interacted with the wrong kind of company either. Heck, I've never even looked at a boy or planned to get myself a boyfriend. I haven't even gone on a single date in my life for that matter. So the truth is, I'm not allowed to be a teenager. These restrictions however are put on me by myself. I must be mature and careful since the very survival of my mother depends on me. I actively deprive myself from the kind of fun other kids my age prefer. Not that I mind doing so. I would do that and more if it means mom will be happy.

So, it's fairly safe to say that, I can do anything, give up anything, make any sacrifice just to see my mom safe and happy. However, the fact that my mom can worry like hell whenever I'm concerned, doesn't make things any easier for me. If I catch a simple cold, my crazy, anxious, panic driven mother would stop eating, sleeping or in one word living until I completely recover. So, I'm always careful and I try my best not to get sick. Because god forbid if my sickness is anything more serious than a simple cold, mom would become sick herself from worrying too much. Sometimes I can't help but wonder what will happen to mom if one day I suddenly die; or I'm diagnosed with serious health issues. Well my mother will follow me to the grave; that's for sure. If there's something I really don't like about my mother, this is it. The fact that her life depends too much on me. It's not right, neither it is healthy in any way. I never dare to say these things out loud though. I'm most certain that if I ever talk about my death, my too much caring mother will immediately suffer either a panic attack or a heart attack.

Putting all these thoughts aside, I walk up to mom and give her a tight hug. Our days won't start until we share a morning hug. She kisses my temples and goes to get the breakfast for me. I settle in the chair right across from mom and wait for her to return. After a while mom puts a plate with chicken sandwiches in front of me. I grin happily because that's my favorite breakfast. We start eating but suddenly mom's cell starts to vibrate indicating that someone is calling her. Mom looks at the ID and immediately groans out unhappily. I glance at the screen too to check the ID myself and can't help but chuckle. Mom glares at me playfully and turns the cell phone off. The person who just called mom works with her at the hospital. His name is Brian. Brian's been trying to get mom to date him for years now. Mom however thinks that he is a huge asshole and honestly I couldn't agree more with her.

Unsurprisingly, Brian isn't the only one who got a crush on my mother. And it was fairly obvious why. After all my mom is a very gorgeous woman. According to me, she's the most beautiful person in the world. And no, I'm not being bias at all. Trust me on that. Many guys hit on mom on a regular basis actually. Usually we'd just laugh if off but this Brian guy really annoys mom. It seems he just won't give up until mom says yes to him which is something that's never going to happen. But who can make that guy understand something so simple.

"I think you should give him a chance, mom. He's working really hard, poor guy." I say sympathetically and instantly receive a slap on my arm. It's fun teasing mom about certain matters and annoy her.

Speaking of the things I never say out loud, there is this one thing that I particularly avoid talking about other than my death. Actually I avoid talking about this subject even to myself. The thing is- without any doubt I'm very happy and proud that my mother is such a pretty woman; however sometimes I can't help but feel a little sad about that. Envious even. The reason is quite simple and clear. Compared to her beauty, I'm absolutely nothing. No one would spare a glance at my way when mom is with me. Even the teenager boys would ogle at my mother rather than me. And why wouldn't they? My mother has beautiful raven black hair that reaches her waist. It cascades down her back in loose curls. Even when her hair is tied up in a bun, it looks beautiful. She has such soft, silky and shiny hair. It also smells nice and fresh all the time. And even though I'm her daughter but I only have simple straight chocolate colored hair that barely reaches my mid back.

That isn't all. Mom has the best quality skin that I've ever seen. It looks smooth and got a creamy fairness to it that seems to make her face glow. Compared to her, I'm just pale and boring. And whenever I blush for some reason, I look really pathetic because not only my temples but my nose, my ears, not to mention my neck as well also turn red. But whenever mom blushes, it looks so beautiful and gorgeous that it could give a healthy man a heart attack. Metaphorically speaking of course. My mom has big attractive brown eyes but I have boring hazel eyes with a bit of green in it which I inherited from my dad. His eyes were green like forest. My mom has full pulpy pink lips but I have thin ones. The only thing that is similar between us is our heights and perhaps our figure shape a little bit. We both are five six and got a very slim body. But mom's curvier than I am.

My mom doesn't even look much old therefore, people would often mistake us as friends. Sometimes I envy mom's beauty so much that I hate the fact that I don't look more like her. Most of my features are a mix between my dad and mom. Even though I think otherwise, but my grandpa used to say that my parents did a good experiment and should make more good looking babies. But unfortunately they never got the chance to do so. Besides I never think of myself as beautiful. How could I? When I have a super model like mother around me. I'm fairly average at best. I often wonder, why mom didn't become a model or an actress. She could have done very well in that field of profession due to her stunning looks.

Needless to say, my mom's thoughts about me are completely different than mine. For her, I'm no less than a Disney princess. But every mother thinks that their daughter is the most beautiful girl in the world. So her opinion doesn't really count. In my sixteen years of life not a single boy crushed over me or asked me out on a date. They hardly notice me actually and never think of me as a potential girlfriend. Perhaps I'm deemed to die a virgin. Don't get me wrong. I am not that desperate to have a boyfriend or craving for male attention. Hell I hardly notice them myself. But being invisible isn't fun either. It didn't use to bother me before. But lately, that and many other kind of negative thoughts are crossing my mind a lot. Having no other option, I blame the whole thing on my age and hormones for thinking and feeling like that.

After finishing breakfast, it is time for us to start packing. Yes, we are moving out of California. Mom is offered a job at a hospital in Washington DC with better salary and facilities. Therefore we are moving there. Mom didn't want to move at first thinking that it would disturb my educational life. Settling down in a new school and making new friends aren't always easy. But I insisted her to take the job offer. Besides, it would be nice to go to a new place, meet new people and have a new experience. I wanted to help mom with packing so I offer to pack my stuffs myself. But after one hour of trying I gave up and went to mom. When she sees my face at the door, she instantly knew that I gave up on packing. It appeared not to be my cup of tea.

"Do you need any help?" She asks smiling smugly at me with a knowing look on her face. I roll my eyes at her. It was really not my fault that I don't know how to pack. First of all we don't move around or travel a lot, and then whenever I needed to do packing, mom would always do that for me. So, I never had the chance to learn packing things in the first place. I was completely spoiled under my mom's care. Once we started packing together though, we had a lot of fun doing it.

Tomorrow we will leave for our new destination and life. Who knows what fate has in store for us. I obviously hope for it to be something good.


	2. Welcome To La Push

 

 

**Chapter 2: Welcome To La Push**

 

The flight from California state to Washington D.C was very long. But I didn't get tired at all because of all the excitement I was feeling throughout the journey. The ride from airport to our new home was more interesting though. Mom and I kept looking around the place out of the car windows. The new buildings, malls and people walking around in crowds; all very familiar sights but still different, new.

The house we were going to stay in was huge for the two of us, not to mention very very beautiful. It was closer to mom's hospital than my school which was a real good thing because then mom could come home earlier after her shifts. And there were also many shopping malls and restaurants near by. When we arrived at our new house, both of us were extremely tired; so we didn't start unpacking right away instead planned on doing it the day after.

The following day in the morning neither of us wanted to get up from bed but Mom had to go to the hospital to report her arrival. So we decided to do the house decorating thing after she returned home from work. While mom was gone; I decided to look around the neighborhood and get to know the city. It felt like an adventure to me, wondering around a new place and seeing new things, walking by stranger people. Altogether it was an amazing experience for me. When I got back I found mom home already. She was sitting on the couch with her face buried in her hands. And it appeared that she was crying. I realized right away that something wrong had happened. I rushed to her in panic.

"Mom, what happened? Are you okay?" I asked her frantically. Getting really worried. Mom looked up at me with tears in her eyes. She pulled me into a hug immediately, making me more worried. She hadn't acted like this in many years.

"Please mom, tell me what's wrong? Did something happen at the hospital?" I asked impatiently. Mom sighed out heavily. She wiped the tears from her face before nodding her head. I let her take her time to start talking. What I understood from mom's explanation was that, the new job she took at the hospital requires a three months training in abroad where she can't take me with her. To top it off mom can't even back away from the training course since she has already signed up for the job at the hospital.

This was a huge problem for us to say the least. Mom would never let me stay alone all by myself. And if she unofficially backed away from the deal then she'd be sued for that, not to mention it would cost her her medical license which was totally unfair. It'd undoubtedly ruin her career. Mom couldn't think of anything to solve this problem. Her brain had just stopped working at that point. However, I had an idea.

"Mom, I think I should go and live with grandpa and grandma for these three months." I said which truly was the only solution I could think of. I had never spent one single day in my life without mom. And truth to be told, at that moment I didn't even know how was I going to manage without her for three months. But I had to give it a shot at least. Mom didn't like the idea much and honestly, neither did I but we really didn't have any other option here.

In the end, mom finally decided to go along with the plan and called grandpa. She explained to him the problematic situation. Grandpa however sounded beyond happy to hear that I'd be staying with them for three months. Feeling his happiness I realized too that I've actually missed my grandpa and grandma a lot. Later the more I thought about it, the more I started to get excited actually. Afterall I hadn't seen them in the past two years. We did talk over the phone but it would be really nice spending some time with them.

" _Don't worry Tania dear, we will take care of her_ " said my grandma enthusiastically after taking the phone from grandpa. She obviously heard the conversation between mom and grandpa. Happiness was highly evident in her voice.

"Thanks mom, thank you so much. I won't be so worried if she is staying with you" said mom to grandma and I couldn't help but snort to myself hearing that. It was hardly a believable thing that mom wouldn't worry about me. But she trusted grandma and knew that they would take very good care of me. After putting down the phone, mom got her sad look back on her face again. I hated to see her upset like that but the situation was out of our hands.

"They are living in Washington currently in a small town called La Push." Mom informed me and ran a hand trough her hair with a sigh of frustration. I had heard before that grandma and grandpa also moved out of Chicago after Uncle Frank and Aunt Carly moved on to their own lives. But I didn't know that they had settled in La Push. I checked the location on the net in my laptop.

"It's a small Indian reservation, ma, near Forks." I said to mom. She came over to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders from behind as she bent over to look at the screen herself. She remained silent for a while before speaking up. However it sounded as if she was talking more to herself than to me.

"This will mess up your schooling. What will you do there for three months? You don't even know anyone there and I won't be there with you either. What if you get sick for the change of weather? Who will look after you, your grandma is very old now... and who will cook you your favorite dishes and tell you bed time stories when you can't sleep... and wake you up on time in the morning..." She was still speaking but I turned around and hugged mom like I would never see her again. I couldn't stop the tears from coming out of my eyes and mom also started to cry while holding me close to her. But I didn't allow myself to get weak in this situation. We needed to go through this tough time and stay strong for each other.

"Mom, you have to trust me. We can do this. I promise I will take care of myself and you have to promise me that you will take care of yourself." Mom nodded her head only as she couldn't speak up that moment or say anything. Deep down I knew mom was still thinking of a way to get out of this situation entirely. But I wouldn't let her do anything reckless and risk damaging her career. So I said once again, strongly this time.

"We have to do this mom. It's only a matter of three months. Our lives will be back to normal again before we know it. We will talk to each other everyday and I will make some friends over there to spend my time with. Maybe I will even join the school there as well so that I won't get too bored." I told mom all these positive things and hoped that it will make her see that this sudden change in our lives wouldn't be so terrible. Mom relaxed a bit when she realized how very excited I was to see grandpa and grandma again. After all she missed them too.

"I promise you sweetie, nothing like this will ever happen again." She promised. Inwardly, I felt glad that mom finally accepted the fact that we'd stay away from each other for three months.

"Well now it turns out to be a good thing that we didn't unpack last night." I said to lighten up the mood. Mom smiled a little to make me feel better. She knew very well that I didn't like to see her miserable at all. Afterwards, We decided to go out for lunch and bought a couple of things for our journeys ahead. After coming back home, we discussed the plan for my travel to La Push.

"Blush will arrive tomorrow morning. We will drive all the way to La Push. After I get you settled down there, I will leave for that bloody training" said mom, followed by some more grudged words under her breath.

Tomorrow came and went by very quickly as well. We did a lot of shopping and ate our dinner at a popular local restaurant. When we were planning about the things we would do on the road, someone called mom. After speaking to the person over the phone, Mom became very upset. Whoever had called her, certainly didn't give her any good news. I stared at mom with questioning eyes, wanting to know who called her and what did he say. She started talking after a moment.

"The time to leave for the training has changed. The whole team will have to leave tomorrow at nine" said mom with a heavy tone of voice. I knew as well as mom what exactly that meant. She couldn't come with me down to La Push and get me settled there or meet grandpa and grandma for that matter. None of what we had planned so far would happen now.

It took a long time and talking from me to convince mom to let me go there alone. This trip would be an opportunity for me to prove to her that I could really take care of myself. Mom had no choice but to agree with me but she wasn't a bit happy about it; obviously. It was a very difficult situation when I got ready to start my journey to La Push. Blush had arrived around five in the morning the previous day. I wanted to leave early but with mom crying and all, it was a pretty emotional moment for us. It would be a very long drive from DC to La Push. After I finally started my journey, mom called me after every half an hour to check if I was okay until she boarded the plane herself to leave for South Africa.

The road to Port Angeles was pretty cool. I listened to my favorite songs while driving. I decided to take a little rest in Port Angeles and eat something solid because my stomach was making funny noises by then. After the break, I crossed Forks and finally reached La Push, a little before the time I anticipated to arrive.

After I entered La Push I got confused about which direction to follow to get to Grandpa's house. I had the address but I couldn't find the house even after driving around for thirty minutes in this small town. It was a new and stranger place to me so I had no choice but to take help from someone local. Luckily, I noticed a man walking by my car. He looked local to me. I decided to ask him about the address. If I wasn't so caught up in my own thoughts of finding my grandparent's house I'd have noticed how huge the guy was. He was definitely over six feet five and really muscular and tanned. He was extremely handsome too but the fact that he was walking half naked in heavy pouring of cold water, seemed really crazy to me.

' _Does this guy want to kill himself?'_ I didn't spend much time thinking about it though. I quickly rolled down my window to call out the guy. The cold air made me shiver instantly.

"Excuse me!" I yelled out for him. He turned around right away. I was actually surprised that he heard me over the rain so quickly. He walked back to my car in long strides and bent over the window. He looked at me with questioning eyes. For a moment I couldn't get the words out of my mouth and had to struggle to speak up.

"I'm sorry for bothering you. Actually I am new here. Could you please give me the directions to get to this address?" I politely asked. He glanced at the paper and recognition flashed over his face immediately.

"You are looking for the Castle residence." He stated and I nodded my head and felt a little relieved that this guy knew the place I was looking for. Maybe he even knew my grandparents. La Push is a small reservation town after all. Everyone must know everyone here unlike in big cities where people hardly know their neighbors. I was bound to have a totally different experience in this place. I've never lived in a small town before so I was quite excited about it actually. The guy gave me the directions quickly.

"Thank you." I said and was about to ask him if he wanted a ride somewhere but he was gone already. He disappeared just like that as if he was a ghost or something. Anyway I found the house in no time with the given directions. I parked Blush in the front yard of the house. I walked up to the door and knocked twice. A few seconds later the door opened and I came face to face with my old grandpa. His face brightened up immediately as he saw me standing there at the doorway. I had a huge grin plastered over my face as well. Grandpa engulfed me in a bear hug while we laughed in joy. He yelled for grandma to come out quickly. She came running out of the kitchen. When she saw me, her eyes became teary instantly. Grandma pulled me into a warm hug and kissed my cheeks affectionately.

"Laila, my lovely child, I am so happy to see you." She held my face in her soft warm hands and looked at me with love filled affectionate eyes. There was also admiration in them. I did change a bit after they saw me the last time almost two years ago.

"You've grown up so beautifully, my dear." I smiled at her, feeling a little shy. Grandma kissed my forehead as grandpa wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me inside the house. I liked the house right away. It was warm and welcoming. I was very hungry so we ate an early dinner together. Grandma already had my favorite dishes cooked in the noon. My grandma was my second favorite cook right after mom. The three of us remained awake until late night as we spent the whole time talking with each other and catching up mostly. I asked them about why they chose La Push to spend their remaining days and found out an interesting tale of their past.

"After your grandpa and I fell in love with each other, we decided to get married but my family was against it. They wanted me to marry someone else. We had no other choice but to run away from home. We came down here, in La Push and got married. We stayed in this town for one year before moving to Chicago. And now in the remaining days of our lives, we just wanted to relive those happy memories again." The tale didn't end there. I insisted them on telling me more about how they met first and how they fell in love with each other? It was a long and really romantic story. I didn't know my grandparents were so romantic when they were young. Just like my mom and dad were. Hearing their love story I only wished to get my own love story one day. And somehow I had a feeling that my love story would begin very soon.


	3. Encounter With Wolves

 

 

**Chapter 3: Encounter With Wolves**

 

I woke up late in the morning because no one tried to wake me up with some childish tactics. I checked my cell phone and saw five missed calls from some unknown number. I figured Mom must be trying to call me as no one else would call me five times in the morning. I redialed the number and just as I thought, mom picked it up.

"Hey mom, what's up?" I started talking immediately before mom could get a chance to say hello.

" _You just woke up, didn't you?_ " Mom asked in a fake scolding tone and I couldn't help but giggle at that.

"Sorry mom, I slept late last night. Catching up with grandpa and grandma. Anyway how are you doing?" I heard mom sighing on the phone. I knew she must be missing me and I was missing her too. Can't believe it's only been two days since we parted.

" _I'm fine honey. I just reached the place where I've to stay in for three months. The house is very beautiful. I wish you were with me here right now._ " It was true that I would be having fun with mom if I was there with her but truth to be told, I didn't regret coming here to La Push. I missed my grandparents very much. And I was glad about getting to spend time with them. I heard Grandma from downstairs telling me to wake up and have breakfast.

"I'm up grandma. I'll be down in five minutes." I yelled back to her.

"Mom. I've to go. Talk to you later. Bye. I love you." With that I hung up and then rushed to the bathroom to get ready. Obviously I couldn't finish getting ready in five minutes and went downstairs after about fifteen minutes. When I got downstairs I heard grandma talking with someone in the living room. And grandpa seemed to be out at the moment. He must have some work to do. I entered the living room to meet the guest and introduce myself as well. When I entered the room, I found that it was a girl. She looked only a couple of years older than me. The girl was really pretty and seemed friendly as well. Grandma noticed me and grinned widely.

"Kim, meet my granddaughter Laila and Laila this is our neighbor Kim. She lives next door with her fiance Jared." Grandma introduced us. I walked up to Kim and shook hands with her. She seemed to be a shy type person. I realized that because since grandma mentioned her fiance she couldn't stop blushing. If Kim didn't have dark skin tone, she would've looked like a ripe tomato right now.

"How long will you be staying here?" Kim asked me politely, obviously wanting to start a friendly conversation between us.

"I'll be staying here for three months until my mom finishes her training in South Africa." I replied. Kim smiled at me but there was pity in her eyes which confused me a bit.

"I hope you enjoy your stay here. I heard from your grandma that this is the first time you are staying away from your mom and you've already started to miss her." When Kim said that I finally understood her pity for me and I really didn't mind that. We kept talking about formal stuffs and grandma left to get some heavy breakfast for us.

"Kim, what people usually do around here for fun?" I asked really wanting to know and thought that it wouldn't hurt to ask Kim about it. However, before she could answer, grandma returned with some peanut butter sandwiches for us.

"Laila, your grandpa said you could join school from next week." Grandma informed me as she sat down on the couch across from us. Kim never answered my previous question and engaged in a conversation with grandma instead about her up coming wedding. Not to mention blushing the entire time while speaking about it. She really seemed to be in love with her future husband. I wondered why she didn't answer my question though. Was it a slip of mind? I decided to believe that. What else could it be? Suddenly the door bell rang and Kim got excited for some reason unknown to me.

"That must be Jared. He's supposed to come here to pick me up before leaving for his friend's house." Kim rushed to open the door. Curiosity made me walked behind her. After listening so much about this Jared guy, I really wanted to meet him. But when I looked at the guy standing in the doorway whom I assumed to be Jared, I found out that it was the same guy I asked about the address yesterday.

"You?" It got out of my mouth before I could stop it. Kim looked back at me with a confused look on her face. But Jared knew why I was surprised to see him.

"Do you know each other?" Kim asked now looking between me and her fiance. It felt like one of those scenes in the movies where a wife catches her husband red handed with another woman. Jared immediately got into action before Kim could get any wrong ideas about how we knew each other.

"I met her yesterday when she was on her way over here. She asked me about the directions to this house." Jared explained and I nodded my head vehemently in support. Kim looked relieved but covered that up quickly as if she wasn't tensed up a bit just a moment ago. So, because of this incident I figured that not only Kim was in love with her future husband but she was very possessive of him too. And it seemed the same for Jared as well.

"Thanks again for yesterday." I said to help Kim believe Jared completely. She smiled at Jared and looked at him as if he was her life and soul.

"He just loves to help people in trouble." Kim said proudly. There they both started to give each other lovey dovey eyes and it seemed like they could start kissing anytime. I looked away from them to give them a little privacy.

A while later, Kim and Jared left in Jared's truck. Weird vehicle choice, I thought to myself. After finishing my breakfast I went to the grocery store with grandma. I realized then that La Push really was a small town. After lunch I had nothing to do. Grandpa took pity on me and gave me permission to go out and look around the place. Even the weather supported me because for once it wasn't raining for a while. Constant raining was normal here. As I started to get ready, it felt like an adventure to me and I pretended to be on a mission. I took a map of the area, my two in one camera. I could both shoot and click with this. I also took a water bottle, a first aid kit box, a compass, some colored chalk, one packet of cookies. I fitted them all in my back pack.

I got a small hidden camera with the two in one when I bought it. I plugged it with the main camera and attached it with one of the straps of my back pack so that I wouldn't have to carry the camera. The hidden camera would shoot whatever I see, so it was very convenient. After preparing my back pack I started to get dressed. I wore a khaki color baggy pants and a purple color short sleeved shirt. It wasn't so perfect for the cold weather outside but I decided to take the risk. I tied up my hair in a ponytail and then I was good to go.

At first I looked around the places nearby the house. But then I thought about going to the famous beaches that La Push got. But I didn't inform grandpa or grandma about this because if they tell mom about my little adventure here, she would freak out and do god knows what then. I followed the road to the beach for a while but then I realized I could reach there through the woods quicker. It took me a little time to decide but I gave in the idea anyway. I wasn't an expert in hiking and there was a huge possibility that I might get lost in the woods. But I kept following only one trail and so far I didn't get lost. At least I thought I wasn't lost.

However after half an hour of walking, I found myself still wondering around in the woods. Not to mention in the very depth of it. I knew right away that I was doomed. I decided to walk straight and reach the end of the woods and get on the road somehow. It started raining but the trees were so dense that the rain drops couldn't reach the soil much. It was getting cold and my dress was doing no good to me. I was shivering from head to toe. And that wasn't enough I suddenly heard some noises around me. I realized that if I wanted to avoid the source of those noises, I must change the trail again. However, considering that a bad idea I started to walk towards the noises. And at one point I heard something growl right behind me.

I slowly turned around and saw a huge horse sized brown colored wolf. It was standing right in front of me. My breath got stuck in my throat and my eyes went wide automatically with fear. For a few seconds the beast and I just kept staring at each other. I couldn't even run because suddenly I wasn't feeling my legs anymore. I looked past the wolf in front of me and saw the whole pack standing there. Each one of them was extremely huge. Some more than the one standing right in front of me. And to make the situation more deadly they were all looking straight at me.

Suddenly an ash colored smaller looking wolf but still huge nonetheless jumped from his place and landed beside the one I was facing. It scared the hell out of me and I fell backward on the ground. An air piercing scream erupted from my chest that wanted to come out for a long time now. My heart started beating so fast that I thought it would burst into small pieces any moment. Tears made my vision blur as well. I was cold and shaking but still sweating and panting due to being terrified and scared to death. I could say just one thing at that time.

"Please don't eat me, please don't eat me, please don't eat me!" As if they would listen to me if they were starving for some fresh meat. Suddenly the wolves barked like coughing or laughing or something like that; if that even makes any sense at all. Suddenly one that tried to jump at me earlier slowly came closer to me and growled loudly. It was enough for me to faint right then and there. And as I started to fell unconscious the darkness slowly engulfed me. The only thing that I could think of at the moment was- 'let my death be painless god'.

* * *

I never thought I would wake up again but I did and I found myself on a stranger bed and in a stranger room. If I say that I was shocked by this, that would be a huge understatement. My head was hurting pretty badly but neglecting that I pushed myself into a sitting position. A groan escaped my throat as I sat up forcefully. A girl who looked around twenty five appeared at the door right at that moment. She smiled at me warmly but I couldn't return the smile because the scars on her face had me startled a bit. I looked away quickly before it would hurt her feelings. Other than the scars she looked very beautiful and friendly.

"How are you feeling?" She asked me politely. Her voice was soft and caring too. However, I didn't answer her question instead asked one myself.

"Where am I?" She walked over to me and checked my forehead with the back of her hand.

"The fever is gone. I am Emily. This is my house. My husband found you unconscious in the woods and brought you here. You are Laila right? Granddaughter of Mr. And Mrs. Castle?" I could only nod to her, surprised that she knew me.

"How long was I out?" I asked thinking that everyone must be worried about me. Emily seemed to read my mind.

"You were out for one and a half hour. Don't worry I informed your grandfather that you are here with me. But they don't know how you got here though." She said. Thank god grandpa didn't know what happened. I smiled gratefully at Emily for helping me.

"Thanks, thanks a lot." I said to her. Then Emily helped me get up from the bed slowly.

"Let's go downstairs. I made some muffins and cookies. You must be hungry." I nodded my head lightly in response and followed her out of the room. Suddenly, I remembered about my backpack that was no longer with me. Did I drop it somewhere in the woods? I got upset at the thought of losing my camera that I loved so much.

"Umm Emily, did I have a back pack with me-" She pointed somewhere before I could finish the line. I looked where she pointed and found my backpack sitting there peacefully. I grabbed it and followed Emily out of the room.

When I reached downstairs I saw the room was full of half naked huge boys and some very pretty girls. I suddenly started feeling insecure in this place. Each of the boys was handsome. Even the girls who seemed to be related to them romantically were beautiful looking. I didn't know anyone here and they were all looking at me. I gulped down the nervousness and walked forward to where they were sitting or standing or doing whatever. Then I noticed Jared and Kim sitting on the couch. Actually Kim was sitting on his lap, probably making out now and then. The previous thought about Kim being a shy type person wiped away from my mind. A shy girl could hardly kiss in a room full of people let alone make out.

However, it wasn't just them. There were other couples who showed very loud romance in the very room. It seemed to me that love was in the air of that house. Kim smiled and waved at me when she noticed me. I smiled back but didn't feel too excited about meeting her here. Emily handed me a plate full of cookies. I didn't feel like eating anymore but took one out of the plate for the sake of politeness.

"Thanks." I said and noticed a very huge man looking at me with concern in his eyes. When my eyes met with his directly, he didn't even bother to look away.

"How are you feeling now?" He asked in his heavy masculine voice.

"Much better now." I replied and he nodded like an army man.

"Laila, this is Sam. My husband" introduced Emily proudly. I noticed another girl with short hair and tall height who looked very beautiful but she immediately got a sour look plastered on her face when Emily introduced Sam to me. I ignored the other girl and smiled gratefully at Sam.

"Thank you so much for saving me. If you hadn't found me in the woods then god knows what would've happened to me by now." Sam smiled a little at me and it seemed that he didn't do the smiling stuff much. Another half naked handsome nonetheless boy rolled his eyes at that.

"Don't only thank him; we were there to save you too." He said. Sam glared at the boy which made him stop talking right away. But the thing he said caught my attention already.

"We? Exactly how many people saved me?" As I asked them the question, they looked at each other uncomfortably. Then another guy came closer to me.

"Embry was just joking. Only Sam found you and brought you here. I'm Jacob by the way." He said. I knew he was lying but decided to let it go. It was not in my nature to invade someone's personal secret.

"I am Laila." Saying that I stretched my hand towards Jacob to shake. He hesitated a bit but took my hand anyway. The moment our skin came into contact, I felt like my hand just got burned. He was running such high temperature. The only explanation I could come up with was that Jacob was running a high fever. But it was strange because he looked perfectly healthy when he shouldn't even be standing on his feet right now. Jacob noticed right away that I was confused about his body temperature, so he removed his hand from mine rather quickly. He even spoke my mind about this matter.

"You must be thinking I'm having a fever right now. Don't worry, its just...we run a high temperature, it's in our gene." Jacob explained. Again we? He was implying that not only him but the others got high body temperature as well. What kind of a genetic thing is that anyway? I certainly never heard about it. And I was damn sure nothing like that exists. This was something else. These men were lying to me every minute about everything but why? And why the hell should I care? So I just nodded and let Jacob think that I believed his stupid 'genetic thing' explanation. But I couldn't stop myself from asking them about the wolves though.

"Umm, by any chance, you saw any wolf out there around me?" I directly asked Sam about it as they claimed that it was him who saved me. I also had another question in my mind about how he found me in the woods in the first place? What was he doing there? But that would've been a rude question to ask, so I didn't bother with that one. But the simple question I asked about the wolves, it made Sam tense up anyway. Everyone seemed a little weird to me in this house. Sam shook his head at me sternly and stated with all the seriousness in his voice-

"No, there wasn't any wolf there." I decided to drop the matter right away but then I heard someone snickering behind me. I turned around and saw another gorgeous looking man. He as well was holding a girl close to him. The girl looked a lot like Jacob. Maybe they were related.

"So, some imaginary wolves scared the shit out of you and made you faint." He said smirking arrogantly at me. I chuckled to myself as if I just heard a stupid joke but then looked pointedly at him.

"The wolves were as much real as you are Mr. and I bet you know about that too because they howl loudly every night. Everyone in La Push knows that they exist in the woods. So, don't bother telling me that I imagined them up. And if you are trying to make me feel embarrassed for fainting in the woods then don't bother with that either because those freaking wolves could have gulped me down in one piece and I would've reached heaven by now. So getting scared in that situation wasn't so embarrassing to me at all. However, your thinking of the wolves imaginary is kind of idiotic really, no offense." I finished with a bitter sweet smile and saw some of them trying to hold back their laughter.

"This should teach you a lesson Paul" said Jacob and he clapped on the other guy's shoulder. The girl in his arm kissed his temple to make him feel better. I think. The Paul guy was glaring daggers at me though. But I didn't pay much attention to that as my mind got stuck onto another matter suddenly.

"Speaking of the wolves, I'm really surprised that they didn't even leave a single scratch on me." I said that more to myself than to them. But still it made everyone look at me again, not to mention rather uneasily.

"What? You regret being alive?" Asked a younger looking boy. I shook my head with a sigh at the stupidity of him.

"No, I'm not complaining that I am still alive. I love my life. But what kind of a beast in their right mind would let go of a fresh snack?" Just as I said that some of them glared at me openly. Others looked displeased. As if I've offended them by commenting on the wolves' weird behavior. One of them even snapped at me angrily.

"They don't hurt humans." He defended the wolves. It seemed I was correct after all to think that they knew about the wolves. Perhaps they saw them around me too. And after suspecting that, I couldn't just drop the subject right away anymore. So I talked more about it.

"A pack of wolves let an unarmed human pass through. It's highly unbelievable. It'd be possible if they were vegetarians. But they sure didn't look like they live on leaves and grass to me. Besides wolves are not vegetarian beasts last time I checked." Everyone looked tensed up again and a bit angry too about what I said. Before I could speak further grandpa appeared at the door and I had to stop talking about the wolves right away. He greeted Sam, Emily and the others. It seemed that grandpa knew everyone there, moreover friends with them actually.

"Grandpa what are you doing here?" I asked him after his greeting ceremony ended.

"It's getting late so I thought about picking you up from here. Did you have a nice time?" Grandpa asked. He seemed to be completely unaware of the incident that took place not long ago. And I wasn't a fool to let him know about it.

"Of course grandpa, I had so much fun." I forced the sarcasm out of my voice as I replied him.

"That's great, we better get going now." He said. I nodded to let him know that I was ready to leave. I thanked Sam and Emily once again and left with grandpa. However, I had a feeling that this wouldn't be our last meeting.

* * *

After talking to mom at night, I lay still on my bed. I was replaying everything that happened with me back in the woods. I suddenly remembered that my video camera must have recorded everything that had happened after I fainted. I got up quickly and pulled out the camera out of the bag. It was turned off because the battery was down. I put it in the charger and after half an hour when it was ready to start again. I searched for the videos of the woods.

I finally found the footage and started playing it. I fast forwarded it and took it to the point where the wolves came in. I huffed darkly to myself as I remembered what Paul said to me about me imagining them up. When I fainted and laid on the ground the camera was turned upward and it shot the trees above me. But then suddenly Jacob's face appeared in the camera. He seemed to be hovering over me. Then Sam came after a few seconds later and it seemed that he lifted me up from the ground. The video now showed me in Sam's arm, bridal style and Jacob standing beside us. Someone else must be holding the back pack then. So it wasn't just Sam who saved me in the woods but the others were there as well just like I suspected. But how did they get over there so fast? As if they were already there. And where did the wolves go? More importantly why did they lie to me about it? Thankfully the sound was also recorded.

"Seth, Brady phase back right now and stop fighting this instant." I heard Sam's commanding voice. Phase? What did he mean by that? I was trying to figure out things when I saw the most bizarre and unbelievable thing in the world. Two of the wolves turned into humans. The fact that they were totally naked didn't bothered me a bit. I was too caught up with what I just found out about them. I saw those two boys at Emily's place. Not to mention one of them even talked to me. From what I saw and understood; I could come up with only one conclusion. They were all werewolves. I was in a house full of werewolves just a few hours ago.

This explained everything to me. The scar on Emily's face; their abnormal body temperature and inhuman growth. They all made sense to me now. The way they felt offended when I insulted the wolves. My inside felt cold suddenly at the thought that I argued with strong and powerful and perhaps deadly werewolves and downright insulted them on their faces. I technically called them crazy stupid beasts. What if they decide to come after me for that? And Jared, he was a werewolf too. Was Kim one too? Or was she trapped in with them? She didn't seem so though. There was no sign of victimization on her. My brain stopped working completely and my breaths became short and heavy. What did I get myself into? Did grandpa and grandma know about them? I didn't know who to trust anymore and what to believe. But I was certain about one thing that if they ever found out that I've learned about their secret then they would definitely kill me. So, for the next three months I must act as if I knew nothing and stay as far away from those werewolves as possible.


	4. Friends With Seth?

 

 

**Chapter 4: Friends With Seth?**

 

The first week of my stay in La Push, I didn't see anyone of the werewolves which I was very happy about. However, I had to stay inside the house most of the time for that. Meanwhile, I learned a lot about the old Quileute tribe histories. More like lore actually. It said that the Quileutes were decedents of wolves. Everyone believed that they were rumors and made up stories but I knew better. I knew how true they were. Even after all the reading, I still felt like I didn't know anything about them. Therefore, I considered them dangerous for human beings. I had a lot of questions in my mind but I wasn't crazy enough to go look for the answers. I could very well end up getting myself killed by the pack in the process of satisfying my curiosity. So no thanks. I'd rather live in the dark.

The first day of the new school came quicker than I expected or liked for that matter. I was going to be among the few outsiders that studied here. Most of the students in this school were from the very reservation. I was really shocked to see three of the werewolves studying here. I thought that they wouldn't be in a crowded place like a school. But I was obviously wrong about that. After all they could communicate with humans without hurting them and capable of acting normal around people. ' _So why not be students at the high school?'_ I thought to myself sarcastically about them. Despite how they behaved in their human forms, I still believed that they couldn't be themselves when they are in their wolf forms.

I soon learned the names of the three werewolves along with some minor details about them. The oldest one was Seth Clearwater. He was a junior. Brady and Collin were freshmen at the school. Thankfully I was a sophomore, so I didn't really have to share classes with any of them. But my bad luck, I was put in junior year classes because according to the school- my grades were too good to be in sophomore year. And to top it off and make thing better (sarcasm) I had Seth in most of my classes. What great things have I done to deserve such an opportunity? Don't miss the sarcasm in it, please.

The three of them had quite a reputation in the school. The girls drooled over them. They worshiped the ground those boys walked on. Only if they knew their reality. However, Seth seemed to be a little shy and quite a happy go lucky kid among them. But Collin and Brady were extremely flirty even though they were younger. They even flirted with senior girls and surprisingly the girls loved them too for that. Nothing seemed to be impossible in La Push. In the lunch break on my first day I sat alone in the corner of the cafeteria. I was trying very hard not to get noticed by the Quileute boys but unfortunately Seth saw me and walked over to me with long strides and a wide grin.

"Hey Laila, how are you doing in your first day?" He asked. I smiled back at him forcefully. I already started feeling sweaty out of fear and my heartbeat increased as well.

"I'm doing great. It's really different from the school I used to go to." I answered him back quickly so that he would leave me alone. Though we were in a public place but still I just wanted him to get away from me. Unfortunately that didn't happen and instead of leaving, Seth pulled out an empty chair across from me and sat there to give the lonely new girl some company. Also I noticed, he had a plate full of foods with him. Would he really eat them all? I didn't want Seth to notice that I was tensing up in his presence. Well more like because of his presence near me. But somehow he did notice that. However he didn't say anything about it and continued talking with me.

"How do you like La Push so far?" Seth asked, trying to make a conversation with me obviously. What he didn't know was that I wasn't exactly used to of conversing with werewolves. But I needed to act normal and civil towards him so that he wouldn't get suspicious of me. Besides, we were sitting in a crowded place so I knew I was safe. However, that still didn't stop me from feeling a little scared. I couldn't even get my voice out properly at first.

"I like this place, totally…. a new… experience." I stuttered the whole sentence. Shame on me, I have to act better. I told myself.

"It rains all the time." What a lame thing to say. Of course it rains all the time. Seth just nodded his head at that but eyed me worriedly nonetheless. Actually even a little suspiciously. Great, now he must be thinking that something is wrong with me.

"You don't like the rain much?" Seth said or asked whatever it was but I just nodded to that.

"I like the rain sometimes but not constantly like this. But my mom loves the rain. She sometimes wished that it would rain all the time where we lived before." Can anyone please tell me why the hell am I dragging my mom into this? God, I am screwing up everything. I wasn't supposed to tell him anything about my personal life.

"I heard about your mom. She is on some sort of training and that's why you moved here, didn't you?" Seth said. I could only nod. Where did he hear that from? Then I remembered, I told Kim everything about that and she must have told them. At first it seemed like a really bad idea talking about mom with Seth but then I realized talking about mom was better than talking about myself. These werewolves were never going to meet mom therefore they could never harm her. But if they learned too much about me then it could easily get me into trouble.

"Yes, mom's training is gonna take three months to complete and that's how long I am staying here." I said. I told Seth a few other things about my mom and he told me about his family. His father Harry Clearwater died two years ago in a heart attack. Then his mom got married with someone named Charlie Swan. He got a sister named Leah. I remembered seeing her at Emily's house. She was the girl with short black hair and a sour face. His other step-sister named Bella got married with someone named Edward Cullen. Though, I had no interest in his family history or family life but I listened to him carefully anyways.

After talking about his family, Seth asked me about mine. I hesitated at first but then I told him a little bit about my father. However, while talking about my dad, for a moment I really forgot that Seth was a werewolf. That he was probably the most dangerous predator in the world. We chatted with each other the whole lunch time and it was really nice. Also I was absolutely shocked at myself for being able to converse with Seth so easily despite knowing the truth about him. I would go as far as to say that I'd have made friends with him right away if he wasn't something supernatural.

I thought and to some level hoped for this interaction to be a one time thing. But conversations kept taking place between us the rest of the week as well. Everyday in lunch break Seth would come over to me with a tray full of food. I got used to of their eating habits by the third day of the school. Sometimes Brady and Collin would join us as well. They would constantly flirt with me which seemed to irritate Seth a bit. Didn't know why though. The thing I figured out from these conversations I had with Seth was that he was kind of a loner. He had friends but none of them was around his age. All the other boys from the pack were older than him and Collin and Brady were younger than him. Seth probably couldn't make any friends at school either. Though I didn't know exactly why was that. The reasons I suspected were, one- the girls here wanted to be his girlfriend rather than a simple friend who he could talk to. And two- most of the boys here hated him because he got more attention from the girls than them. So it was highly unlikely that they'd want to be friends with him.

So the bottom line was that- Seth Clearwater needed a friend to freely talk with but also keep his secrets safe. Someone who can understand him and get him rid of his loneliness without really knowing about his real self. On the last day of school that week, Seth as usual joined me for lunch. Unlike other times, I was desperate to ask him a question this time.

"If you don't mind Seth, can I ask you something?" He nodded his head lightly but got tensed up right away. Perhaps because of the serious look I was giving him. However, he covered that up quickly.

"Why don't you get yourself a girlfriend?" I asked with curiosity. I knew it would catch Seth off guard and as expected he got pretty confused at first but then his face fell visibly. He looked really sad at that moment which confused me in return.

"You don't like it that I sit with you, do you?" Seth asked feeling very hurt. I seriously had to roll my eyes at him for his stupid thinking. I know that in the beginning I wanted to get rid of him; but over the week I kind of got used to of him. I've actually started to consider him as a friend. Despite him being nonhuman. And I had no wish to get rid of him now. Instead I just wanted to understand him more properly.

"Don't be stupid Seth. I was just wondering... I mean girls here are crazy for you. Why don't you give them a chance?" After I explained that Seth lost the sad look and became normal again. Then he shrugged his shoulders at me nonchalantly. He also managed to get a bored expression on his face as if this was the lamest topic ever to talk about.

"I just don't want to get into that kind of a relationship with anyone until I find the right girl for me." Seth said and I swear I saw him blushing as he talked about it. And as my nature was, I immediately smiled mischievously and waggled my eyebrows at him.

"Woooh, so Mr. Seth Clearwater is waiting up for his dream girl. Now, you have to tell me what is she like? In your dreams I mean." Seth rolled his eyes and threw a lettuce leaf at me. I dodged that easily and it landed on the floor soundlessly. I couldn't help but laugh at Seth because he was trying very hard to cover up his shyness with his fake anger but he was failing miserably at it.

"Shut up Laila. I don't dream about girls. Do you think I am like Brady and Collin?" Seth spoke as if offended. I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him a stern serious look this time. We kept staring at each other for sometimes as if we were in a staring contest. Then after a while Seth sighed out heavily signaling that he surrendered.

"Okay, I admit that I have a dream girl but I don't know how she looks like? It's always a blur or dark. I wish I could know where she is right now." The last part; Seth didn't really say that to me but more to himself. Silence fell over us after that. Seth seemed to be lost in his thoughts for a moment. I cleared my throat to bring his attention back to me.

"Can I ask you another question?" He nodded again and got uneasy instantly. He almost wanted to say no.

"Why did you choose to sit with me from my first day here and then everyday afterwards, because I know that I'm not the 'one' as you are still waiting for her?" This time Seth looked serious and it took him some time to arrange his words properly.

"Because you're not like the other girls here. You are different and you're not interested in me like them. I feel comfortable talking to you because-" He gulped down the nervousness he suddenly started to feel.

"Because, you don't try to impress me by doing stupid things all the time. You don't want me to ask you out on a date. You don't try to seduce me while I'm sitting with you or expect me to make out with you." I cringed inwardly at the last part. No matter how friendly we were now but I still certainly remembered that he was a werewolf. And it still bothered me to no end. And making out with a werewolf, god help me.

I really wanted to tell Seth that I knew his secret, that I knew his reality. And I wanted to ask him questions about his werewolf life. But I also knew that the wrong kind of curiosity always kills the cat. And frankly I had no wish to be a cat and get killed in the process. My knowledge about them was a secret that I wanted to keep even from myself. It was clear that Seth wanted friendship from me but I needed sometime to think about it first. Though we were having friendly conversations with each other the entire week and both of us considered each other somewhat friends but truth to be told, we weren't actual friends yet. At least not in my mind. Because I hadn't told him much about myself yet and he was keeping a huge secret from me as well. For the time being, Seth was just someone I spent my lunch time with but nothing more than that. However, it seemed to be different for Seth. He had already started thinking of me as his best friend. Something he never got before. But as I said already, I needed time to decide if I should really be his friend or not.


	5. In A New Light

 

 

**Chapter 5: In A New Light**

 

It was weekend meaning no school. I had nothing to do after lunch and getting really bored. Though it was raining heavily, I decided to go to the beach and spend the evening there. I went to the first beach and it was pretty crowded when I got there. Many people from nearby towns came to visit the beach too. Unfortunately when you are sitting alone on the beach it's not that exciting or fun for that matter. So I started getting bored on the beach as well. But then suddenly my phone went off and it was mom. A smile immediately spread over my lips.

"Hey mom, how was your day?" I asked sounding very cheerful so that she wouldn't know how bored I was feeling at the moment. If she was here with me I would be having so much fun.

_"Fine, sweetie. What you are doing right now?"_ Mom asked, sounding tired but still she was eager to talk to me.

"I'm at the beach mom. I had nothing to do after lunch so I came here. It's really great out here." I said very convincingly but Mom laughed a little sadly at that which made me confused.

_"I bet you are still feeling bored even at the beach._ " She said with certainty. I had to shake my head to myself. Why do I even bother trying to hide my feelings from mom? She knew me too well. It was really a miracle that I could hide the 'passing out in the woods after encountering wolves' incident from her.

_"What about your new friend Seth? He could've given you some company at the beach._ " She said. I already told mom about Seth except for the werewolf part of his obviously.

"He had to go somewhere else." I told mom. Seth told me yesterday that he would go to the Cullen's this weekend with everyone. The Cullens were their family friends. Seth talked about them a lot but I always felt that he was keeping something from me about them. Maybe they were werewolves too. They could be another pack. Mom and I talked a while longer, but then I hung up knowing that she needed to take some rest after working hard all day.

When it started to get dark I prepared to leave. I had to take a walk back because I didn't bring my car with me when I came here. I stick to the road but it was raining too heavily to handle. I thought that it would be a good idea if I walked through the woods. The rain drops would bother me less under the trees. Spending time with Seth the previous week, I somewhat felt assured that the wolves didn't hurt humans. Besides I wouldn't be alive right now if they did. Seth and his pack brothers were good people. They couldn't, at least wouldn't hurt anyone intentionally. Though I was still unaware of the fact whether they remained themselves even in their wolf forms or not. If they did then I am one lucky person and if not then I was doomed for walking through the woods again.

I was getting closer to the house and felt kind of relieved that I didn't get into any kind of danger or trouble the whole way. But suddenly I heard some strange noises like something was moving very fast through the woods. Even the sound of the rain couldn't overshadow that moving noise. I saw the leaves moving too but I didn't see anything or anyone around me. Whatever it was it wasn't one of the werewolves and it was coming straight towards me. I started to walk faster but all on a sudden, out of nowhere a man of around twenty five appeared right in front of me and blocked my way. I was caught off guard so I fell on my back on the wet ground, losing my balance. The stranger quickly helped me up in super human speed. The graceful movements made me a little scared but seeing that it was just a person or should I say just a human, the previous fear I felt in me lessened a lot.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. A pack of wolves were chasing me." He said. I knew what he was talking about. Till then I didn't look at him properly but when he said that and I looked up at his face, I was just stuck at that moment. I was completely dazzled by his beauty and forgot everything around me for a moment. He was so beautiful and god like that it took away my breath. I felt like my heart stopped beating for a second. I didn't even realize that I was ogling him like a complete moron. The man chuckled a little obviously noticing that I was completely lost in his beauty. He waved his hand in front of my eyes to bring me back to my senses.

"Are you with me?" He asked. There was a ghost of a smirk on his lips. I literary had to shake my head to clear my mind. I steadied myself and that's when I noticed his blood red eyes. Also he was so pale as if there was no blood in his body. And when he touched me it was really cold. Colder than the rain water. Colder than ice. I started to have a bad feeling about him but chose to ignore it.

"Unusual contact color you have chosen." I said smartly trying to cover up the idiocy I had showed earlier.

"What makes you think these are contacts?" Though he full on smirked at me this time but he asked the question with seriousness in his smooth silky voice. But to show that I didn't care about what he said, I shrugged my shoulders at him nonchalantly.

"Maybe because people usually don't have real red eyes. By the way exactly how many wolves were chasing you?" I asked. He got tensed up immediately at the mention of the wolves. He looked around as if he could see clearly right trough the trees.

"They are getting closer. It's the whole pack of ten wolves I guess." He said. I frowned angrily as he replied me. That stupid pack of werewolves should really learn not to scare people off like this. I bet it must be really fun for them but it wasn't fun for others. I had my own experience with them. They scared the living soul out of me and now they were scaring off this poor handsome guy.

"Don't worry they don't hurt humans." I said in an attempt to make him less scared but the man looked right back at me. Not to mention, he had a knowing look on his face as well.

"I know. That's why I need you to get me out of here. They won't be able to attack me if you are with me." He said. But before I could process and understand what he was really saying, I felt something bit down on my shirt collar from behind. Then I was pulled away from the man in one swift motion. When I was far away enough from the beautiful pale looking man, I was let loose. I quickly turned around and found that, it was one of the werewolves that dragged me away. I was about to run back to the man to save him but the wolf blocked my way aggressively.

"Oh no! Maybe they've changed their policy on not hurting humans." I whispered out to myself. Unfortunately, the wolf that was circling me like a predator, heard that quite clearly and made a little growling sound as if pissed off. I saw the other wolves jumping up on the man before he could make a run for it. They tore off the man's head at first and then the rest of his body parts as well. I closed my eyes shut tightly before I had to see more of it. Tears leaked out of my closed eyes.

I was wrong about them, the werewolves. Dead wrong. They were nothing but monsters. I couldn't believe myself that I actually thought that they wouldn't harm humans. That day in the woods maybe I just got lucky. But I was certain that this time they wouldn't spare me. Once they are finished with butchering the pale man they would kill me right away. Suddenly life seemed really beautiful to me. All the things that I wanted to do in my life; they would now remain undone. I wish I could live more. What would happen to my mom? She would die too the moment she'd hear about my death. This wouldn't have happened if I had just walked on the road instead of entering the woods. It appeared, I kind of chose to end my life myself. But trust me, I didn't want to die so early.

Some of the wolves collected the pieces of the man's body and went away from there; out of my sight. I thought of trying one more time to run away from them. I ran past the wolf that had me trapped. I thought that it'd try to stop me but instead I found myself free very easily. It confused me to no limit. And somehow I didn't feel scared anymore when death seemed so certain to me. When my fear was gone, I was filled with rage and anger. Now, I wasn't a stupid person by nature neither I was suicidal but that moment, I lost my senses. Soon I found myself facing the wolf again. I was ready to take my anger out on it. When I properly looked at the wolf for the first time, I realized that it was actually none other than Seth. I recognized him by his eyes.

"You killed him. You just killed him. How could you do that? I thought you were not a monster but I was so wrong (sob)…. So what now Seth, you are gonna kill me too, tear me apart into pieces…. I bet you would do that because you are nothing but a monster." I yelled at him. My knees were shaking badly and I couldn't stand on my feet anymore. I dropped myself on the ground and stood on my knees instead. I tightly wrapped my arms around my shaking body.

"I was wrong…. I was so wrong." I kept saying that to myself. My voice merely a whisper then. I never thought I'd die like this. Anger, sadness and fear all of them consumed me at once. I was shocked when Seth turned away from me instead of jumping up on me and attack me with his teeth and claws. He started to walk away from me to where the other wolves were standing at the moment. They were apparently waiting up for him. Curiosity got the better of me and I stood up on my feet again and ran after Seth. I started to walk behind him while asking a lot of questions.

"Why are you leaving, hey?... What happened?... Is it that I won't taste good to you or are you full right now?... I am talking to you for god's sake. Don't act like a dumb animal, Seth!" He stopped walking and turned around abruptly. It obviously startled me and my heartbeat increased. Seth got a sharp look in his eyes as if extremely pissed off. I took a few steps back on my instinct. I cursed myself for being so stupid and for managing to piss off an already mad werewolf. I always do stupid things when I am angry. And unfortunately for me this time I was no exception. I should've run away to save my dear life when I had the chance. But no I had to follow this monster and make him more angry at me.

The other wolves made some growling noises as if talking to each other. Suddenly they all went behind trees and came out in their human forms. They were wearing cut off pants like they were the other day at Emily's. Seth was the first one to come over to me.

"Stay where you are. Don't come any closer." I threatened him but it didn't work. Could I be anymore stupid? Threatening a man eating werewolf! However, Seth got a hurt look on his face instead of anger this time. I noticed it when he came closer to me. The others were surrounding us as well. Each got different expression on their faces.

"Laila, please come with us. Everything will be explained to you" said Jacob walking up beside Seth.

"Not another Bella Swan situation" said Jared in a grumpy voice. I knew who Bella Swan was. Seth's step sister. But I didn't know what the hell happened with her or how she could relate to me. And frankly I really didn't care about that when my own life was at stake at the moment. Having no other choice I started following them quietly. We reached Emily's house in half an hour. When we all entered the house Emily immediately noticed the tension between us and stayed out of the situation. I was waiting for whatever made up explanation they were going to feed me. After a few moments of silence, Jacob released a deep breath and looked directly at me.

"Laila, listen to me carefully and please believe me. We are not monsters." He said. I however, scoffed angrily and looked away from him. I also crossed my arms over my chest to prove my point that I did not believe him at all. Jacob ran a hand through his short hair and looked at Sam for some help. But Sam's silence said clearly that he wasn't interested in helping him.

"Look, I know what you saw back there, and I'm well aware that it has given you a wrong impression about us. You think we are monsters now. Maybe that's the truth, we are monsters but we are not the evil kind of monsters that you think we are. The pale man you met earlier, was a vampire. He and his kind are the real monsters. They will suck out blood from human in order to survive. We only kill vampires to protect humans and keep them safe." Jacob explained. I remembered what that man said about using me to get out of the woods. As Jacob kept explaining; things started to make more and more sense to me. I slowly started feeling guilty for behaving so rudely with them when they actually saved my life. However, even though guilty but I felt immensely relieved as well for obvious reasons. After Jacob's long explanation on vampires and werewolves he looked at me and asked-

"Do you have any questions?" I nodded to him and put on a very serious face.

"I have only one question for you." Jacob nodded his head and everyone else seemed to get attentive too. Curious to know what I was going to ask.

"When you are in your wolf forms, do you pee with your leg up like regular wolves and soak random trees?" My face was cracking up but I tried hard to maintain a serious face. The guys on the other hand looked at me as if I've just asked them something in alien language. Emily however started laughing out loudly from behind the kitchen counter. Clearly understanding that I was only pulling their leg.

"No we don't do that" said Jacob looking like a perfect idiot.

"Good, well that's a relief." Saying that I burst out in laughter along with Emily. The boys looked at each other.

"But we do this" said someone and suddenly the next second I found myself covered with red tomato ketchup all over my t-shirt. When I searched the room for the culprit I found that it was Quil.

"Did you just shot me with ketchup?" I said with exaggerated incredulous tone of voice. Quil beamed proudly as I accused him.

"Man you are so dead." Saying that I grabbed an egg from Emily's kitchen counter and threw it at his head which Quil dodged expertly but it hit Embry instead. He instantly got covered with egg liquid. Then Embry took something and threw it at me but it hit someone else. The throwing fight kept going on for sometime and by the end of it every single one of us was covered with various kinds of things all over our face and body. Even Sam and Emily weren't spared of this. After everyone got cleaned up, we ate a delicious dinner. Later, I apologized to everyone for thinking bad of them. They forgave me without thinking for a second. And if I was not wrong then I think they actually really liked me.


End file.
